Page 159 of Dark Violent Things

A bell chimed in the distance, and her feet paused, turning toward the tower. Her greatest friend and only ally was calling her home.

The townsfolk called him The Mute, for the way his nightmares sat in his throat and clawed there. But he was more than that. More than the night that made him and the things he did to see dawn. The Mute had special powers. Sexy powers. The kind that…

“Ouch,” I laughed when Nate fell onto my lap, pinching my leg. “What? It is a good story.”

I lied. It wasn’t. It was a tragic tale that ended with me on a mattress. Irony at its worst.

My eyes shifted to the curtains when a chill settled low, sending a shiver through my body. My mind drifted to Wolfe and how much I missed him. Keeping him always inside my bones.

“It is freezing in here,” I mumbled, shuffling toward the window, only to see Thay smiling at me from the other side. Wherever he was, he wasn’t hurt. Wasn’t broken. And most of all, he was mine.

I thought about the window in Seattle and every one I had ever opened since. If Thay couldn’t get to me, my body would lock down, the terror arresting me completely. But now that he was inside my chest, I knew I was safe.

A hot tear rolled down my cheek to the stone below, but I didn’t move to wipe it away. I had learned that letting them fall helped with the pain I knew would always live inside me. It was dark. Violent. And alive.

Just like me.

Nathem patted the mattress, and I stepped forward, running my fingers along the edge of the old wood. I took a breath, the drum of Thay’s heart kissing my pulse in a slow, thick, almost overwhelming rhythm…

I closed my eyes, leaning into the glide of Thay’s hand sweeping down my shoulders and over my fingertips.

And then... we shut the window together... for the very first time.